X.423

Imprint: Leiden. E. J. Brill. 1893

Half-leather folio, brown buckram boards, gilt edges, measuring 365 x 300 mm, and containing 64 varnished collotype prints pasted down onto guard-mounted card, with 30 pp. letterpress decription of the photographs and two folding plans of architectural details of the temple. According to Gerrit Knaap, in 'Cephas, Yogyakarta. Photography in the service of the Sultan' (KITLV, Leiden, 1999), this work was undertaken in the season 1889-90: 'The period 1889-90 seems to have been a busy time for Cephas. The reason was that the Archaeologische Vereeniging, or Archaeological Union, in Yogyakarta had begun activities aimed at the study and preservation of the ancient monuments of Hindu-Javanese civilization in Central Java. The Lara Jonggrang temple complex in Prambanan on the border of Yogyakarta and Surakarta was a monument that had high priority with the Union. In 1890, the Netherlands-Indies government made f. 3,000 available for the completion of work already begun on uncovering and photographing the site. Kasssian Cephas made the photographs of the project in 1889 and 1890, while the young Sem [his son] drew ground-plans and profiles of the buildings ... At the end of 1891 Groneman submitted the pictures made by Cephas together with his own description of them for publication to the Royal Institute in The Hague ... Because the Institute needed extra funds to cover the again expensive reproduction costs, it was not until 1893 that the document was finally published ... '